Divorce Lawyers New York - Recent Family Law Decisons (29)
RECENT FAMILY LAW DECISIONS (29)
Post Death
750 ILCS 5/513(a) and 750 ILCS 5/504(c) do not create a substantive right to post-death maintenance pending appeal; they apply when a right to maintenance already exists and therefore, must be read in conjunction with the prohibition of subsection (c) of this section.
Reduction
Where respondent presented evidence that his income had decreased by 70%, the trial court did not abuse its discretion in reducing petitioner’s temporary maintenance by approximately 66%.
Reduction for Property Charge
The trial court did not exceed its authority where it reduced a husband’s monthly maintenance obligation and placed a charge of $300 per month against the husband’s real property which was to be satisfied from the sale of the property because the “charge” against the property was more in the nature of a deferred obligation and not a lien.
Rehabilitative
Because petitioner cohabited on a resident, continuing conjugal basis with another party and did not subsequently reconcile, respondents obligation to pay all forms of maintenance, including rehabilitative maintenance, had been terminated.
Reinstatement
The reinstatement of maintenance obligations where a party has cohabited on a conjugal basis, but is no longer cohabiting on a conjugal basis, is not provided for by statute.
Retroactive Modification
Where a decree of separate maintenance between the parties in a case decided prior to the adoption of the Marriage and Dissolution of Marriage Act, provided that the defendant pay his wife $15,500 per year for alimony and support, and where on appeal the cause was remanded with directions to reduce the alimony to $11,500 a year, the reduction was made effective as the date of the separate maintenance decree such that from the date of the original award to the date of the reviewing court’s mandate, the defendant paid a larger amount of alimony than he rightfully should have paid, the increment to the plaintiff was an advantage which could not justly be retained and the trial court corrected the overpayment by retroactively adjusting the alimony to the date of the erroneous decree.
Review
Allowed
An award of maintenance is always reviewable and modifiable, if the requisite requirements are met, under subsection (a).
